Yolanda Cortez
Transferring successful Old World livestock protection dog traditions to areas of large carnivore occupancy in the United States
(Livestock Protection Dog International Research Project Report)
By Jim & Cat Urbigkit
Wyoming Wool Growers Association
Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board
J. & C. Urbigkit
P.O. Box 1663
Pinedale WY 82941
(307) 276-5393 home
(307) 360-6672 Cat’s cell
catu2@
Table of Contents
Project summary 3
Background/A note on EU livestock programs 4
Spain (Spanish mastiffs) 6
Producer intensives:
Castilla-Leon region
Goya
Rufino
Francisco
Carlos
Guadalajara region
Juan
Paulino
Bulgaria (Karakachan) 22
Producer intensives:
Daniela
Dimitar & Georgi
Miroslav
Sider
Atila
Turkey (Kangals and Turkish shepherds in general) 35
Producer intensives:
Kayis
Isparta goat herder
Ali
Kultu
Memet
The Turkish Countryside
Portugal (Transmontano mastiffs and Estrela mountain dogs) 46
Final recommendations 48
Trip & Financial summary 49
LPD management practices survey 52
Project summary
As a follow-up to our paper published in Sheep & Goat Research Journal[1] in February 2010, Jim and Cat Urbigkit traveled to three Old World regions (Spain, Bulgaria, and Turkey) in October 2010 to conduct intensive interviews with livestock producers about the use of livestock protection dogs (LPDs) in areas of large carnivore occupancy. We were able to see wolf-fighting breeds actually in use in large carnivore country, with both migratory and stationary livestock herds.
The interviews yielded baseline information about how specific LPD breeds are used with varied livestock operations, the benefits and problems associated with their use, and husbandry and management practices that have been shown to be successful. It also resulted in contact information for potential import of pups from working LPD parents into the United States. The project also yielded an increase of knowledge about one important tool to assist in increasing the survivability of existing LPDs in the United States: anti-wolf spiked collars. We photographed dozens of the collars used in the Old World, interviewed producers in each country about their use, and purchased six collars to use as prototypes in the United States. Information on spiked collars will soon be submitted for publication in a scientific journal.
Since returning from the trip, we’ve also undertaken an ambitious information dissemination campaign, which will continue in the months and years ahead. Articles about the project have appeared in the Wyoming Livestock Roundup, American Sheep Industry News, Casper Star-Tribune, Billings Gazette, Pinedale Roundup, Pinedale Online, Steve Bodio’s nature blog, and Western Ag Reporter, among other online news sites. We’ve presented our findings at the Wyoming Stock Growers Association and American Sheep Industry conventions, as well as in smaller sessions such as one in Jackson Hole, Wyoming involving natural resource agency/conflict personnel. We also maintain a notebook of news clips, articles, and email that we’d be glad to share with the board if needed.
Cat Urbigkit’s presentation at the American Sheep Industry conference in Reno, Nevada, drew the interest of USDA Wildlife Services Director William Clay. After a private meeting to discuss the matter, Clay has instructed his staff to develop a project budget aimed at importing and breeding LPDs more suited to challenging wolves for distribution to western ranches.
Next steps: The Urbigkits plan publication of two other major works to conclude their involvement in this project: publication of a scientific paper on the use of spiked collars; and publication of an article on husbandry practices of livestock producers in the Old World. In addition, the Urbigkits are glad to entertain invitations to speak about LPDs to any groups expressing an interest.
Background/A note on EU livestock programs
The government program for livestock grazing in the European Union member nations of Spain and Bulgaria:
• The government will count all your sheep, and take individual blood samples and provide you with subsidy per head per year. Producers using livestock protection dogs receive a higher subsidy.
• All sheep and goats must ingest a stomach bolus that contains a microchip. This program is mandatory, but free. Cattle must have an electronic coded eartag containing all its genetic and health information.
• Cattle are bled for brucellosis twice a year, with blood samples taken from the shoulder. Only animals that test positive are slaughtered, but remainder of herd must be retested every three months.
• You are required to have a disposal service to pick up every dead animal – the government will pay 60 percent of the cost, but because it knows how many sheep you have, you have to account for all your sheep at the end of the year.
• All of your dogs have to be micro-chipped (E80/$115USD– paid for by the producer) and have annual rabies vaccine. Local veterinarians will have “field days” in rural areas for everyone to meet up and get their dogs taken care of.
• Producers are not allowed firearms.
Why does this system work? Because the government, and society in general, have acknowledged their interest in maintaining livestock grazing and agricultural production. Some of the areas in the countries we visited suffer from the “ghost village” syndrome in which all the inhabitants have left rural lifestyles, leaving uninhabited areas that were once thriving agricultural communities.
In Spain we saw mountainsides covered with thick heather – a travesty. This is because grazing had been reduced or eliminated over the years, a situation some EU nations are attempting to reverse.
Herders are with the sheep at all times, but not to protect the sheep from predators. It’s to keep the sheep out of grain fields because there are few fences. When the herder needs lunch, the 200 or so sheep are turned into a pen for resting and siesta before going back out to graze again. We also saw herders with burros and cattle as well, again for the same reason. More cattle were kept in fenced areas, but most of the areas were unfenced.
Other important items:
• None of the countries we visited have large visible wild ungulate populations for wolves to prey on, like we are so accustomed to in western Wyoming. Where there are higher game populations, there are higher densities of wolves.
• Agricultural systems in Europe are much less efficient than similar systems in the United States. We found that to our liking, since the result is more people involved in, and employed by, agriculture.
• Much of the livestock production systems we observed were small subsistence operations. Local diets relied heavily on locally produced foods, including much milk and cheese products from sheep and goat production.
• The average citizen throughout the regions we visited were more familiar with food production and livestock grazing than most Americans. Most citizens had family members recently involved in agricultural production – parents or grandparents. Society seems to be more aware of pastoral lifestyles.
• There are few fenced rangelands for grazing, so most livestock herds (regardless of species) are nearly constantly accompanied by human herders. Much of the herding is done on foot, not on horseback.
• We saw few herding dogs in use in any country we visited.
• The command to the LPDs meaning “go to the sheep” was used throughout Spain and Bulgaria, but not Turkey. We’ve never heard such a command used on a ranch in the United States.
Spain (Spanish mastiff livestock protection dogs)
Spain was one of three emphasis areas on our research trip sponsored by the Wyoming Wool Growers Association and funded by the Wyoming Animal Damage Management board. We wanted to see working guardian dogs that are aggressive enough to be effective against wolves while not being aggressive to humans. We struck gold in the working Spanish mastiffs we encountered. The dogs we met had been proven against wolves, and we unintentionally provided the ultimate test of their human aggression (a story shared below).
First a little background. We were fortunate enough to have two wolf biologists as our guides in central Spain – including one whose job it was to ensure distribution of mastiffs to producers in wolf country, especially into areas where the wolf population was expanding. These two, Yolanda Cortés and Juan Carlos Blanco[2], organized all our interviews with producers, and got us to wherever we needed to be. We doubt our trip would have been so successful without their insights and assistance. Yolanda and Juan Carlos are freelance biologists, mostly working for the Spanish Minister of the Environment, but also working for regional governments on wolf research projects.
Ranches, farms, and estates are called “exploitations” in Spain, which we noted with some humor. The mastiffs are not called livestock guardian dogs, protection dogs, or simply dogs, but instead are always referred to as mastiffs. To the Spanish producer (sheep, goat or cattle) there is simply no other animal comparable to the mastiff. It should also be noted that producers are very specific about these being Spanish mastiffs, because other breeds sharing the mastiff name are not the same.
Most of the grazing areas we visited are unfenced, so the herder must stay with the herd in order to keep the animals from entering grain/cereal fields in the area. The herder stays with the herd until he’s ready to eat lunch about 2 p.m. At that time, the herd is placed into a centrally located pen, which in some cases has been reinforced with electrical wire to keep wolves out. The herder goes away for lunch, and comes back to let the sheep back out after a few hours. The sheep continue to graze, with the herder alongside, until it’s nearly dark and they are most often penned again. Larger herds (we saw one with about 1,000 head of sheep and 11 mastiffs) are not night-penned, but stay out with their mastiffs. The herders are almost always the owners of the animals and the ranch (I believe we only saw one exception to that). We also saw herders with burros and cattle as well, again for the same reason. More cattle were kept in fenced areas, but most of the areas were unfenced.
The Spanish mastiffs are massive, and most producers allowed us to pet and handle their dogs. The dogs were very tolerant, but quickly went back to work. We met dogs that had actively fought wolves, including one female who was still healing up from a battle a few months prior, as well as a big male dog who had killed a wolf. Okay, so they work against wolves, and they seemed not to be human aggressive, but were they really no danger to humans? We were soon to find out.
The Iberian wolf population is located in the connected region of northeastern Portugal and northwestern Spain. This portion of Spain has long been home to a wolf population, but the region south of the Duero River was recently recolonized by the species. Spain is home to about 2,000 wolves.
Juan Carlos Blanco & Yolanda Cortés provided the following information about the wolves living in agricultural areas of Spain (from a Conservation Biology conference in Hungary in 2006):
“Since 1970 wolves have been increasing in Spain and expanding into areas with highly modified agricultural landscapes. From 1997 to 2005 we have radio-collared 16 wolves in a population established in an agricultural habitat where wild ungulates are almost absent. Wolf density, assessed by radio-tracking and simulated howling to detect different packs, was 2.4-3.0 wolves/100 km2. Wolves expanded their range during the study period. Seventy five percent of the diet biomass, studied by the analysis of 603 scats, was made up of livestock carrion, very abundant during most of the study period. Wolves lived in packs, which averaged 9-10 individuals during the autumn but the percentage of solitary wolves was higher than in most other studies.
“The average home range of radio-collared wolves ranged between 150 and 200 km2. Both resident and transient wolves crossed 4-lane, fenced highways using bridges built for vehicles, but where deterred by a barrier formed by the river Duero and a transport corridor. We conclude that these carrion-eating, adaptable wolves keep the same social and ecological behaviour as other wolves studied in natural and semi- natural areas of North-America and Europe.”
Cortés estimates it costs 200 Euros ($267 USD) per year to purchase and maintain a mastiff. The criteria for enrollment in the program to receive free mastiff pups included:
1. the producer had to have suffered wolf attacks;
2. ranch located inside wolf distribution area; and
3. rancher had to be willing to cooperate with program.
Ranchers are compensated for damages caused by wolves in the Castilla-Leon region. In the 1970s, wolves were located north of the Duero River, but as the population increased and recovered in that region, protections were eased. In southern Spain, there are a few smaller scattered populations of wolves where wolves are still protected. Wolves are hunted north of the Duero River, but not south of the river, where wolves are protected both under Spanish and European law. When wolves attack livestock south of the river, a team confirms the kill and provides documentation for compensation. Ranchers pay 0.3 Euros per head per year (about 40 cents per year) for insurance on their animals, and compensation is provided by the regional government for damages, up to the first 200 Euros. The insurance company pays for damages higher than that amount.
In Europe, livestock production is subsidized by the European Union. Every farmer in Spain receives 30 Euros ($40 USD) per head to raise sheep, and this amount is paid by the European Union.
“Without subsidies, livestock grazing in Europe is not sustainable,” Cortés said. “Society pays the farmers to maintain livestock grazing.”
Consumers pay 15 Euros ($20 USD) per kilo (2.2 kilos per pound) for lamb meat in their local grocery stores.
(In contrast, in the United States, producers pay to graze on public land, and compensation may or may not be provided for damages, and if so, not by the federal government).
“In Europe, many habitats and many species depend on agricultural areas,” Cortés said. These areas are very important to keep animals from extinction. The EU is also concerned about abandonment of rural areas.
“That’s one of the reasons the EU is paying to maintain agriculture in many areas,” she said. There are no pristine landscapes in Europe, both the wolf biologists noted.
In every village in Spain, pits were in place for all farmers from the area to bring their dead animals, and these pits were the main food source for wolves. But now the burial of carcasses is not allowed. Since 2002, when the cattle disease Bovine spongiform encephalopathy issue arose in Europe, rules were put in place dead animals must be inspected and hauled away by a disposal company, where the carcasses are burned. One producer, Francisco, told us he pays 1,000 Euros ($1,337 USD) per year as a flat fee for the disposal service (this is a subsidized service also). If he didn’t pay this contract amount, he would have to pay 11 Euros ($15 USD) per dead animal.
The new policy resulted in a 70-80 percent decline in the food supply for endangered vultures, so the European Union had to relax regulations in some areas so that pits could be created that are only accessible to avian predators. The disappearance of carcass pits had a negative effect on wolves as well.
Most of the livestock producers we met in central Spain did not have spiked collars (called carlancas in Spain) on their dogs, although Yolanda said carlanca use is predominantly a practice of northern Spain. In higher wolf density areas, or with longer recent history of wolves, carlanca use is more common.
We met our guides in central Spain, in a wide open, rolling landscape that reminded us of eastern Idaho’s potato country. It’s this area that wolves are recolonizing, hiding in the cover of remnant forests, moving down draws and gullies to hunt. We spent our time in Spain in the Castilla-Leon region, and near Guadalajara in the Castilla La Mancha region, basing out of Segovia, Spain.
“Cattle spend the whole day alone in the mountains, and mastiffs are their only protection,” Cortés said, noting that cattle are the most common livestock in northern Spain.
The Spanish wolves weigh from 65 to 99 pounds., with the average weight about 77 pounds. Wolf packs normally include five to seven wolves per pack, primarily eating deer, wild boar, and carrion.
“The wolves and the wildlife here have been shot at for centuries – that’s why the wildlife in Europe are much more shy than in America. All the animals are shy,” Cortés said. “The wolves are completely nocturnal. The wolves don’t howl during the day – they are very shy. In many parts, they don’t even howl, not even during the night. They completely avoid humans.” Even radio-collared packs with known territories fail to respond to howls from biologists tracking them, a common survey method for wolves in America that simply doesn’t work in Spain.
Firearm use is tightly regulated in Spain, and as one producer told us, he is not allowed to shoot at either a wolf or a stray dog attacking his sheep. He must call a ranger to shoot the offending animal.
Cortés is the author of a small handbook for farmers detailing proper training/health care of LPDs. She noted: “Farmers who have not had dogs do not know how to train the dogs. The project not only gave the dogs for free, but also helped teach the farmer to train the dog. I think that’s very, very important.”
The guide, written in Spanish, has been presented to USDA Wildlife Services for translation and use in the United States.[3]
Cortés said: “You must put the pups together with cows, in a close place for 4-6 weeks more or less to create the social bond. It’s more important to create the bond with cattle than with sheep. You must be more careful with cattle, but the process is the same.”
Cortés noted that producers need to find a balance between not handling a dog at all and handling the dog just a little bit.
“You need to help him get used to a certain degree of handling,” she said.
The owner of the dog must handle the dog so it is used to a certain degree of handling, petting and grooming it frequently, and providing food, but that’s all, she said. She also noted that while the dogs are in the mountains with their flocks in the summer, pups are sometimes stolen.
Mastiffs don’t like bicycles very much, Cortés said, adding that negative encounters occur on occasion, but not very often. Mountain grazing areas are also high recreational use areas.
Farmers in lowlands see the dogs every day, but only every few days in mountains in summer. “That’s why it’s so important to avoid that aggressive behavior,” she said.
Cortés reported that there have been a few cases of sheep herds attacked by wolves in the past, with these herds becoming afraid of dark-colored dogs. The program replaced the dark-colored dogs with light-colored or white mastiffs to get the herds to accept the dogs. Dark brown and black dogs reminded the sheep of wolves. It was reported that the program had to remove dark mastiffs from farms in two cases and replaced them with white mastiffs.
For the most part, the mastiffs are much larger than the wolves, and barking is usually enough to deter wolves from protected flocks. The wolves then turn to unprotected flocks as prey.
Noting that some LPD researchers believe that actual physical encounters between LPDs and predators are rare, Jim Urbigkit asked Cortés, “Do the dogs fight the wolves here?”
Cortés laughed in response to the question, stating: “Oh yeah. It’s not frequent, but they do.”
In the Northern Rockies, as migratory sheep flocks move, most depredations occur within the first few days of moving onto new range, as the dogs work to clear out predators and establish their possession of the canid niche. Cortés said they have found both mastiffs that have been killed by wolves, and wolves that have been killed by mastiffs. Most of the dead mastiffs were female mastiffs entering wolf rendezvous sites.
Mastiffs used for guarding livestock must be from livestock breeders, not just mastiff breeders, Cortés warned, adding that it is unacceptable for the dogs to have human aggression. It was also pointed out on numerous occasions that the presence of a set of double back dewclaws is a characteristic of purebred Spanish mastiffs.
We did not find any mastiffs with docked ears or tails in Spain. With mandatory microchips and rabies vaccinations, local veterinarians host annual “field days” where they drive out to central rural locations to meet producers and see to their veterinary needs.
Cortés and Blanco were Spain’s representatives in the European Commission’s four-year, five-country LIFE COEX program to reduce conflicts between livestock and large carnivores. The program paid for placement of high-quality LPDs, and installation of electric fences, as well as other mitigation and education measures. In Spain, compensation for large carnivore damages were linked to the use of damage prevention measures (such as electric fences and mastiff LPDs).
Goya
Goya is a milk sheep producer in the Segovia area of the Castilla-Leon region of central Spain who had frequent incidents of wolves attacking his sheep at night while the sheep were in the field. The situation had become such that Goya was spending the nights out in the field with his sheep in order to protect them. The COEX program donated an electric fence to be used for night penning his sheep. As soon as the five-wire fence was erected to reinforce an existing pen, the attacks stopped. Cortés reported that the COEX program donated 30 electric fences to Spanish producers in three years, and in that time, the number of attacks declined to only three, with one dead sheep. The fences were determined to be highly effective in reducing the number of attacks by 98 percent and in reducing the number of livestock killed or injured by 99 percent.
Goya has had mastiffs for five years, since wolves arrived in his area, and after wolves attacked his flock, killing 20-25 sheep. Goya expressed no preference for male mastiffs or female mastiffs, but noted normally males are more territorial, and usually defend territories much more.
Goya said the number of dogs recommended is dependent upon the size of the area where the livestock is grazed: 1,000 sheep in an enclosure is different than 1,000 sheep on the mountain.
Cortés said that most ranches include 800 to 1,000 sheep, many of them with only two or three mastiffs. She noted that there is less threat of predation in Spain than in Northern Rockies with coyotes, so it’s logical American producers may need a higher number of dogs, especially in range flocks.
Goya had an aggressive mastiff, but it was not a pure mastiff. He had to kill the dog because of the conflicts with humans.
Cortés recommended, “Completely avoid aggressive dogs in the field.” The dogs should be eliminated, culled from the program.
Although Spanish mastiffs have shorter hair than some other LPD breeds, they also have thick undercoats. Goya said the mastiffs are content in winter temperatures, even in mountains.
Training is very important, Goya said, recommending producers be very strict with pups during training. He noted the importance of constantly controlling the dog – if the dog goes away, it is important to call him back and teach him to go to the sheep.
“The dogs must stay with the sheep – they must always stay with the livestock,” Goya said.
Goya’s lambs are sold at about 20 days of age, at a weight of 10-12 kilos (22-26.4 pounds). His ewes lamb all year long, with ewes producing lambs three times in two years. Most lambing occurs indoors, and the dogs are not allowed to eat the afterbirth.
Goya’s dogs are affectionate with the sheep, licking their faces and demonstrating affection. Scavengers present include other dogs near inhabited areas, ravens, crows, kites, and raptors.
When asked if she believed that wolves are attracted by dogs (perhaps because of competition or the potential for breeding), Cortés said, “I think that’s nonsense.”
Cortés pointed out that it is easier to find a female dog than a female wolf, but the cases of wolf trying to breed dogs are low. She said wolves may approach dogs either when wolves are at very low densities, or in response to a female dog’s heat cycle.
Goya strongly recommended that western livestock producers try Spanish mastiff dogs. “The instinct of the mastiff for protecting livestock is very strong,” he said. “The most important thing is that you have the control over the dog, the dog must learn that you control the situation, you must teach them to stay with livestock and you must teach him that you are the one who rules.”
Goya recognized the problems for range producers in establishing this type of relationship with the dogs, suggesting it was easier in a farm-flock or stationary type of situation.
When we approached Goya’s farm in the car, a mastiff dog ran up to the car barking. This dog was part of a small flock of sheep that were passing by Goya’s farm at the same time that we arrived.
Goya would not allow his dogs to approach cars. If his dog behaved in this fashion, he would go to the dog and reprimand it for such behavior. If the dog were allowed to proceed with such behavior, Goya noted, it may become bolder and bolder, and may eventually show aggression toward a human.
The dogs from the passing sheep herd and Goya’s farm were not overly aggressive in their interaction, although Goya said sometimes more aggression is exhibited. The dogs quickly establish and avoid each other’s territories. Some farmers encourage their dogs to challenge other dogs they meet in trailing or grazing.
Goya recommended to never let the dog abandon the herd while grazing, and never let the dog come back to the stable when it should be with the herd. Goya believes that in a situation like that in the Northern Rockies, having lots of predators will keep the dogs alert.
Goya also had a herding dog. Also, Goya’s 11-month old male mastiff that we photographed would not allow us to handle his front feet and legs, something we’ve noticed with other wolf-wrestling LPD breeds.
Goya said the most important things for the producer to remember are:
1. The dog must learn that you are the owner and the one who controls the situations;
2. The dog must stay with the livestock all the time; and
3. Avoid encouraging aggressive behavior with other dogs.
Rufino
Rufino runs about 200 head of Israeli milk sheep in the Castilla-Leon region – an area that contains 50-60 percent of the wolf population in Spain, with a relatively low human density. It’s a beautiful countryside, thick with Spanish lavender (which smells like lavender, but looks like sagebrush). In this area, sheep are always accompanied by people because they graze near grain fields where there are no fences, a common scenario in Spain.
The sheep graze during the day, penned at mid-day so the herder can have lunch, before being freed for afternoon grazing. The sheep are night-penned and are guarded by at least three livestock protection dogs that roam outside the pen. The pen has been reinforced with 5-wire electrical fence.
Rufino has always used livestock protection dogs in the past, but in the last five years has switched to breeding pure Spanish mastiffs. He uses mastiffs as a prevention measure, and reports he has had no problems with wolves since acquiring the dogs.
Rufino said his dogs are not aggressive to humans in the field, but do become more aggressive when located at his stables. Although Rufino uses herding dogs, he reports no conflict between his mastiffs and the herding dogs. For the most part, the mastiffs get along, but sometimes they have conflict over guarding duties, Rufino reported. The pups are born in the stable, and are kept there with their mother until about two months old.
As we talked, Rufino penned his sheep, and one young livestock guardian dog kept Cat busy, keeping between Cat and the herd. None of Rufino’s guardian dogs showed aggression to us, although they barked as we approached. The dogs maintained their bodies between us and the herd.
Rufino reported he’d never had his dogs bite or behave too aggressively to humans.
Francisco
This meat sheep producer runs 1,500 head of sheep of the native Spanish Castellena breed. We saw one intact male mastiff that was very shy to us strangers. This male also had a naturally docked tail.
We were told Francisco had two castrated males out with the herd. They had been castrated to prevent them from roaming. He recommends three to four mastiffs per 1,000 head of sheep. He uses four dogs all summer long with 900 head of sheep. With 700 head in a flock, he’ll use three dogs.
His herd lambs outside, but then he brings the newborns into a large barn for their first four or five days of age. Francisco sells slaughter-ready lambs at 10 kilos, at 21 days of age. Last year he was required to submit blood samples from 100 percent of his sheep herd, and this year, he had to provide samples from 75 percent of the herd – a percentage that he expects to decline in future years, with more occasional monitoring of his herd by governmental officials.
Francisco reports no problems with dog aggression against humans. His dogs are more aggressive towards humans near the stables, and not out in the field. He’s used mastiffs for about five years. He had one attack before acquiring good mastiffs, but since using “good” mastiffs, no attacks. Good mastiffs means purebreds from other working producers. He lambs twice in one year, and one the next. Most of his herd give birth to twins in February through April (because it’s the natural season), so less lambs out of season.
“Mastiffs are very, very useful for not just wolves, but stray dogs,” he said.
If he sees a dog attacking a sheep, he has to call a ranger to shoot the dog. He is not allowed to shoot at either stray dogs or wolves.
Carlos
Carlos is the foreman at Caserio De La Torre, a large range operation. We arrived at the Caserio De La Torre to learn that a pack of wolves lives on the ranch, attacking the livestock herds constantly. This ranch reminds me of the beautiful rolling range country of central California. The introduction of mastiffs resulted in major declines in attacks, although some do still occur.
Cortés explained that the mastiff guarding behavior generally is to chase the predator away from protected livestock, but after a few hundred meters, the dog should stop and return to the herd. She said producers should avoid chase behavior in their mastiffs.
Carlos explained that a wolf had jumped over an 8-foot tall wire-topped rock wall during the night and killed a ewe in a pen at the ranch, as we later went out to observe and confirm. The carcass had been left in place, since a ranger planned to use it as bait for shooting the wolf should it return during the night.
Ranch losses:
In 2010 included 12 calves and 8 sheep;
In 2009, 24 calves;
In 2008, 11 calves; and
In 2007, 27 calves.
It was in 2007 that the ranch was presented with three mastiffs, but the dogs had been bonded to sheep and not cattle. Carlos came to the ranch in early 2009 and brought his own mastiffs with him. As we talked, we learned he was in the process of liquidating the ranch’s 300 sheep (unrelated to wolf issue), and converting entirely to a 500-cow production outfit, with five adult mastiffs and two pups for protection. The ranch breeds Avilena cattle, a native Iberian breed that is known for its bravery. The breed produces high quality beef.
Carlos showed us photos of wolves approaching his cattle, only to be confronted and chased off by his mastiffs.
Carlos also showed us his bonding pen containing yearling cattle and two young mastiff pups. The pups were allowed constant access to the cattle in a building, but could escape into their own pen for protection if needed.
Carlos began using the carlanca collars after wolves tried to kill his mastiffs. Four months prior to our visit, the shepherd arrived to find the adult pair of mastiffs “had been beaten by wolves.” It was nearly two weeks later before they found the dead wolf in the pasture, proof that the dogs hadn’t lost the battle.
Wolf attacks occur year-round, but late summer and fall is most common, Cortés said, which Carlos confirmed, when the wolf pups are getting bigger and starting to hunt with the parents more.
It is very common for mastiff owners to practice severe culling of pups in Spain, usually only saving one or two pups from any litter. In recognition of this, Cortés went to specific breeders and asked them not to kill their upcoming pups so they could be used in the distribution program in central Spain.
Ideal number of dogs with free ranging cattle is dependent upon the terrain in which the herd grazes in addition to the size of the herd, according to Carlos. He prefers to have at least four dogs with 300 head of sheep.
The cattle are always available for wolves, since they are always out in pastures.
Carlos reported no problems (“no, never”) with aggression towards people, even with the presence of a public road and recreation area within the grazing range. “Mastiffs are selected to confront predators, not people,” Cortés said.
He reported that leashed dogs accompanying recreationalists are not a problem, but unleashed dogs are, since the mastiffs will confront them. Hunting dogs are also a problem, since wild boars are hunted in drives, and the hunting dogs will be lost on the range. Dogs that come into the herd are killed by mastiffs – the fate of two hunting dogs in Carlos’s herd.
Cortés cautioned that LPDs that show untoward aggression need to be trained to reinforce that such behavior is unacceptable. Carlos recommended producers focus on bonding their pups, begin their education early, and correct undesirable behavior from the beginning.
Carlos recommended that iron collars be worn in summer, and switching to leather in winter (since the leather collars will sweat in summer). He cautioned that the dogs sometimes try to scratch their heads when the collars are first fitted, and are injured that way. Carlos recommends the collars be placed on the dogs year-round.
Carlos, who is going into the mastiff breeding business, would be interested in exporting dogs to the United States.
Mastiffs are tough and hardy, with no skin or hair problems. No color selection is practiced in working LPDs, although show breeders select for uniform coloration. Cortés said her program paid 450 Euros (about $600 USD) per pup to get the best working dogs.
Guadalajara, Spain
Juan Carlos Blanco guided us to livestock producers in the Guadalajara area east of Madrid, in the Castilla la Mancha region. There are few bears in northern Spain, but not in Central Spain, so the major predator of interest there is the wolf.
“Wolves are new to this area – breeding packs were first documented here five years ago,” he said, so many producers are now learning how to use these dogs.
“Some producers don’t like carlancas because the dogs fight. They can be injured by the carlancas,” Blanco said. He noted that female mastiffs are very territorial and competitive. While some view competition among the dogs as a problem, he said, “Some say it’s nice too.” The female dogs will spread themselves out around a herd to avoid each other.
The average number of wolves in the local wolf pack he studied in 2010 is 10 wolves. Blanco said that a research program radio collared 70 wolves, and there were 10 known deaths of those wolves. None were killed by other wolves, but one was killed by a mastiff in a cattle pasture, and the remainder were human kills (both hunting and illegal killing).
A mastiff was killed by wolves on a large ranch where 2,000 sheep and 300 cows are raised, along with 12 adult mastiffs. The sheep spend nights alone in the field with mastiffs, and wolves are around all the time.
Blanco said that good mastiffs stay with sheep and the biggest problem posed is when a female dog enters her heat cycle.
The livestock herder must be sure all sheep are together, or two groups with mastiffs in both herds, before he goes home for the night. Wolves kill some sheep from time to time, but not many, he said.
October/November through January/February is the wolf-hunting season, with a 140-wolf quota in the Castilla de Leon region, according to Blanco. In wolf damage areas, additional wolf control is authorized. There are 149 known wolf packs in the same region, and wolf hunting is concentrated in wolf damage areas.
Many wolves are killed by cars, but at least 50 percent of wolf mortality is due to illegal hunting (according to a 10-year old survey), Blanco noted.
In northern Spain, wolves never disappeared, and neither did the mastiffs used to guard against them. Because of this long tradition, the mastiffs protecting the herds became simply part of the landscape. In the Basque country, wolves arrived within the last 20 years, and dogs were brought in, in response. Trouble with tourists resulted, he said. People in agricultural areas of Spain know that they have to be careful around livestock, so society is more familiar and accepting of mastiff dogs.
In Spain, there is now a working branch and a show branch of mastiffs, Blanco said. It’s important that livestock producers only use dogs from the working lineages.
The Griffon vulture is common in Spain. The European Union forbids livestock carcasses being left in the field. Since this policy has been enacted, the vultures are now attacking lambs and calves at birthing time, Blanco said. This is a new problem, and initially, biologists denied such activity was taking place, but livestock producers were able to record the incidents with their cell phone cameras. Researchers soon learned that near-starvation had forced vultures to switch to live prey.
The importance of using mastiffs was underscored by recent livestock depredations in the region. As we drove near El Pico De Lobo mountain, we learned the day prior that wolves had killed six sheep on the other side of the mountain. A month prior, wolves killed 60 sheep of a herd of 150 that had been left unprotected, Blanco said.
Juan
Juan Arenar is a very important and influential livestock producer from the village Cantalojas. His operation consists of 2,000 sheep and 300 cows. His lambs are sold at 20 days of age, for 60 Euros each.
There is a local pack of wolves that keeps Juan’s sheep flock surrounded at all times.
His sheep graze on rangelands governed by communal/ancestral grazing rights, administered by local towns. The sheep are herded during the day, or checked by a herder a few times a day. The dogs are fed in the mornings, and herd is checked late in the day to be sure they are guarded and in a good area for bedding.
The herd grazes a “natural area” or “natural park.” The Beech Forest Park Tejera Negra was set aside as a Natural Site of National Interest in the 1970s to protect the beech forest in the southern portion of the Iberian peninsula. Our visit to Juan Arena’s rangeland was filmed by a Spanish public television crew for a special on wolves and livestock protection dogs.
When the dogs are two months old, they are placed with sheep for seven months more for an intensive bonding process. Some pups will try to play with the sheep and will wound them. When this happens, Juan Arenar advises that the pups be placed with male sheep (bucks/rams) for a month so they will learn to behave, since the rams will not tolerate such behavior. He noted such chase behavior happens with yearling pups.
But pups that are gentle with sheep can go out onto the range with sheep when they are six months old.
Just one dog on his range was wearing a carlanca, although he told us he prefers for his dogs to wear carlancas. There were several dogs limping because they had been fighting over a female in heat.
One female dog was wearing a bell. I asked why and learned that she was pregnant. She would have pups out in the grazing area, and the bell will allow the herder to track her and check her pups.
His dogs come to the approach of the truck every day for food. It’s a typical sheepherder truck, dented and dirty, a bag of meat scraps and bones in the back.
“They protect the sheep in exchange for food,” Blanco explained of the relationship between the herder and his mastiffs.
When a sheep dies, the dogs protect the carcass, but there are many vultures in the area, and they work very fast, Blanco explained.
Juan’s herd lambs inside a barn. Juan said he has used the mastiffs for more than 10 years, and trades other livestock producers for dogs when needed. He believes the dogs have improved his sheep’s behavior, making them “more compact” or better at flocking.
The only health problem identified with this breed is hip dysplasia, although it was reported that dogs with this condition are from heavily inbred lines, not working dog lineages. Another occasional health issue reported is that the stubble on cereal fields will rub their back dewclaws, causing chafing.
Juan Avenar reported that some of the dogs will run after wolves, while others will not, during the day. At night, he reported, the dogs stay with the herd.
When a litter of pups is born, there are usually 5-8 pups, but only three or four at most are saved. He said he always selects for double back dewclaws because this is a sign of pure mastiff.
One of his problems with dogs is that hunters kill them, a problem we heard repeatedly in both Spain and Bulgaria.
We saw a mastiff in Juan’s barn that had been attacked by wolves in August. She had been very sick afterwards, and it was October and she was still recovering.
Any sheep that wander off on their own, or in small groups, will immediately be killed by wolves, Juan reported. For example, one group of 20 sheep was released without mastiffs and was promptly killed.
Paulino
Paulino is a goat producer who uses six mastiffs with his main herd of 448 goats. His herd mostly kids in his barn, but sometimes out in the fields. He sells market kids at 10 kilos (about 30 days of age) for E56/$80USD. Paulino’s herds grazed on acorns.
Paulino’s first ordeal with wolves was only three years ago, when a wolf pack moved into the area. There were at least two wolves involved, but the exact number isn’t known. Many of the livestock producers didn’t believe there were wolves in the area, and few precautions were taken. Paulino had two mastiffs at that time – a very pregnant female, and a 10-month old pup, so his goats were not well guarded. The wolves killed 51 goats in one night. After that depredation incident, Paulino purchased several more mastiff dogs and has not suffered any major losses since then.
Paulino often locks his goats in the barn or a pen at night, but some nights the goats stay out with their mastiffs. He factually noted that any goat left out without a mastiff will be killed by wolves. “The goats must be protected,” he said.
Paulino has a second herd of 60 goats that are protected by one mastiff. We also saw 60 black cows with a mastiff just outside his village.
Our last livestock producer visit one afternoon was to Paulino’s second herd, consisting of 60 mother goats that were out grazing, away from their penned kids. Paulino reported there was one mastiff dog with this bunch that he thought we would like to see. We arrived at the pen in the evening, and the mother goats were nowhere to be found. We walked through thick brush covering the mountainside, trying to find the herd, but couldn’t even hear their bells. Paulino decided to drop down into the canyon below in attempt to find the herd and place the mothers back with their kids for the night in the safety of the 8-foot tall wire pen, so we were to wait.
As it started to get dark, and we could hear the goat bells coming in the distance, we (wolf researcher Juan Carlos Blanco, Jim, and Cat) walked back to the kid pen, opened the gates to let the goats in, and stepped back out of the way. We realized that if the goats tried to approach the pen and saw strange figures in the darkness, they would never enter the pen. So Jim and Cat stood very still next to Paulino’s vehicle, while Juan Carlos stood on the other side. The goats began coming to the pen, but they approached from both sides, so Jim sat down on the ground so he couldn’t be seen. Afraid to move, Cat just stood frozen in place.
Suddenly a large mastiff male approached the pen with the front of the herd, so the goats began to enter. The male stuck his nose to the ground and wheeled around looking in Cat’s direction. Cat warned Jim so he could get up off the ground, and began softly telling the massive dog what a “good puppy” he was. The dog barked loudly at Cat and came directly for her, but when he approached close, he simply sniffed her hands, which she quickly used to pet and praise him. He raked Cat’s hands with his teeth, and then passed behind the vehicle to meet Juan Carlos. Cat could hear Juan Carlos talk to the dog before the dog continued his circle to meet Jim. The dog raked Jim’s hands with his teeth as well, but did not bite.
That was a miracle. We had created the worst disaster scenario in which we were fully prepared to be attacked by a guardian dog, yet the dog did not bite anyone, and only showed mild aggression. He was very nervous, and although Paulino was talking to us, as we approached the goat pen, the dog continued to rake our hands with his teeth, taking our hands into his mouth in attempt to redirect our attention from the goats to him. Understanding his body language and what he was attempting, we walked away from the pen. This increased the dog’s comfort level and he went inside the pen to his goat herd, with we strangers safely locked out.
It was too dark to get a photo, but this was a typical massive mastiff, only one year and two months old. Paulino’s mastiffs were not friendly mastiffs like others we had met, and did not want to be touched by strangers. This is probably a reflection of Paulino’s belief that the dogs should not be petted while they are being bonded to livestock as pups. His largest and most valuable mastiff, Leon, was always nearby, but lurked in the brush where we could never even fully see him. Leon was the only dog wearing a spiked leather collar as a defense against wolves. The collars are often reserved for the best dogs.
We were extremely impressed with the working Spanish mastiffs we met in Spain, and recommend that livestock producers in wolf country in the United States try this breed. Their effectiveness against large carnivores, without human aggression, is highly desirable. We hope to gain support for bringing pups from working lineages in Spain to the Northern Rockies. Wolf biologist Cortés would be a logical contact for such a project, and could bring both the dogs and the knowledge of their husbandry to share with us in the United States.
Paulino uses the same bonding process as most producers in America, placing the pups in a pen of kid goats to bond for their first two or three months of life. Little training is undertaken, although if a pup chews on the ears of a kid, he spanks the pup with a newspaper.
“They should always be with the goats, and with the other dogs,” he said. “Even when the pups are young, if they are with older dogs, this is enough to train them.”
Paulino breeds and raises pups, giving excess pups to other producers. Paulino said he does not castrate his dogs, with his interpreter stating, “He thinks that they suffer a lot.”
“The goats are the family of the dogs,” Paulino said through his interpreter. “They believe they are.”
Paulino does not pet or play with the pups, and if they approach him for affection, he rejects them. Paulino advises that producers avoid strong links with the dogs, fearing that the dogs will leave the goats and attempt to follow the herder. He does pet his dogs enough so that he can catch them for veterinary care. When asked about whether dogs that aren’t socialized to humans may be more aggressive to humans later, Paulino explained that from one litter of pups all raised together, only one in the litter became aggressive as an adult.
Although the goats and mastiffs share expressions of affection, the mother goats will also attack the dogs during kidding if they feel their kids are being threatened. One dog is very protective of any lame or sick goats that tend to follow behind the herd, and this dog will push the slow goats with its head to hurry them along.
Paulino feeds the mastiffs once or twice a day, using kibble and bread mixed with fat. Because the goats will compete with the dogs for food, he supervises the feeding to reduce conflict.
Like his goats, Paulino’s dogs were a mixture of colors, and Paulino admitted to having a preference for white dogs since he can see them better from a distance.
Paulino is very happy with his mastiffs, and recommends that American producers in wolf country try the breed. Although he leaves his goats alone on the mountain with the dogs at times, Paulino fears the wolf pack will return.
When asked about mastiff aggression toward humans, Paulino said he has seen his dogs bark at people in a threatening manner, but never bite anyone. Paulino also reported that on occasion his mastiffs have conflicts with his herding dog, but attributed that to the smaller dog’s insistence that it is the top dog.
Bulgaria
We were fortunate to meet up with Atila[4] and Sider Sedefchev, and Elena Tsingarska, soon after arriving in Sofia, Bulgaria, for an interview and interesting conversation about large carnivores and LPDs before we began our journey into the countryside. We arranged to hire Atila for the week as our driver and guide, and would conclude our week’s tour at Sider’s farm near Kresna. In addition to the farm, which focuses on conservation of native breeds of livestock and livestock protection dogs, Sider and wife Elena Tsingarska (a wolf researcher), and Atila are the founders and operators of the Large Carnivore Conservation Center, an educational facility complete with two captive wolves and a European brown bear, in addition to the livestock and dogs. Elena is Bulgaria’s primary wolf researcher, a job she’s held since 1997. The Sedefchevs are noted experts on the native Karakachan LPD.
Atila and Sider wrote: “We decided that conservation of the Karakachan dog in its original type and working abilities was impossible without the conservation of the habitat where the breed is formed. This meant conservation of predators, livestock, pastures and pastoral traditions: conservation of the unique symbiosis between all these elements.
“We started with projects for the prevention of harm to livestock by predators. We have been using Karakachan dogs as a conservation measure for the protection of large carnivore species.
“For Bulgaria this was pioneering work. We unite the conservation of a guardian and a predator, because evolutionarily they developed together. Survival of the guardian depends on the survival of the predator and vice versa.”
We also had the pleasure of spending an evening with Dr. Atanas Vuchkov, a professor in Agrarian University-Plovdiv and a member of managing body of the International Karakachan dog Association (IKDA), and Venelin Dinchev, chairman of the IKDA.
Sider reports that the Karakachan LPD works well with sheep, goats, and cattle in protecting against attack by wolves, bears, and golden jackals. Bulgaria has some of the highest large carnivore densities of any country in Europe, with about 1,200 wolves and 600 bears. A European brown bear recently killed a woman out picking mushrooms.
A program to distribute Karakachan pups to livestock producers in regions of the Balkans that are inhabited by large carnivores has reportedly resulted in an 80-percent decrease in depredations. Much of the livestock grazing in southern Bulgaria involves common flocks, in which the livestock is gathered together from all the people in a village and are grazed together. Sider reports, “In one flock, numbering 1,200 animals, where sheep were gathered from 114 different owners, we gave four dogs. Later the shepherd of this flock produced many puppies and kept four of them for himself. “
The contract for participation in the program requires the producer to give Karakachan pups from future litters to other producers.
From our observation, herding of animals is mostly done on foot. In much of southern and central Bulgaria, the landscape is generally too steep and rugged for horseback-based herding.
In a 2005 article in Carnivore Damage Prevention News, Sider explained: “The Karakachan Dog is strictly territorial. It accepts the flock as its territory, wherever it is. Being close to the flock, they become visible aggressive. If a stranger tries to catch an animal from the herd this person can be exposed to serious aggression. However, when a flock is passing through a village the dogs walk calmly without paying attention to people. But I do not remember a case of a person being bitten by project Karakachan Dog guarding livestock.”
“There is another reason for the lack of accidents. Namely, the tradition of guarding livestock with big, aggressive dogs has always existed in Bulgaria. Everyone knows about them and people simply avoid the flocks so conflicts don’t occur. Also there are dogs, which do not express aggressiveness towards people, but in same time are excellent guards against predators. The trends are in breeding dogs that are less aggressive towards people.”
“These livestock guarding dog has always been the only effective traditional protection against predators. It is a key factor in solving the predator/man conflict and consequently saving large carnivores.”
We found the dogs to be extremely athletic, and learned they are very effective against bears. The dog pack works together to move danger away from the herd. We found aggression varied in the dogs we met. Most Karakachans are used in high recreation areas, and have little conflict with humans. But we also met one breeder specializing in human-aggressive LPDs because of livestock theft.
Bulgaria has been part of the EU for three years. The EU pays a subsidy per head, plus per hectare, for livestock grazing, at a stocking rate of six sheep per hectare. If the producer uses LPDs, the subsidy is higher. They are paid for grazing in the national forest, national parks, and municipal lands.
Taxes for goats are ten times higher than grazing for sheep. Goats are viewed as bad, or “evil,” and are forbidden from mountain grazing.
All of the thick, brushy mountainsides we observed was once open country (within the last 100 years), because herders would set fire to it when they left for the season. The Bulgarian sheep herd has been reduced from 10 million sheep to 1.5 million sheep.
Because of all the moisture and fog associated with the Balkans, producers use bells on many of their animals in order to find them. We saw and heard bells on LPDs, goats, sheep, and cattle. The mountains are alive with the soft ringing of bells.
Atila maintains that the LPDs must like challenge to be effective guardians in large carnivore country. He reports no problems with wildlife and the dogs, since shepherds won’t tolerate dogs that chase.
Both Atila and Sider are offended by comments from some researchers suggesting that LPDs think that they are sheep.
“The dog is brave and has instinct, or not,” according to Sider.
We also learned that in some European countries, it is illegal to dock dog tails or ears, or remove dewclaws from a dog. Bulgaria also has a law requiring LPDs to wear a 30cm-long stick attached to the collar of their dogs. This stick, called a spavachka, is to hang to the elbow joint of the dog. Sider explained that spavachka is supposed to act as a hindrance to prevent the dog from running after game animals, and a LPD without one can legally be shot. Shepherds despise the law and feel it hinders the dog’s ability to work. They have devised numerous spavachkas that comply with law, but do little to hinder the dog’s movement.
In our interviews, one herder commented that he felt he could not graze livestock without his LPDs. He noted that wolves were the same color as the trees and were too difficult to see.
Daniela
Sheep and goat producer Daniela Chakarova of Progled, Bulgaria has used Karakachans for more than 20 years. In the winter, her herd is located on the mountainsides outside the ski resort village of Chepelare and near Progled (we went to both places) in the Rhodope Mountains. The herd grazes in the summer in Hadzhiitza and Karamanitza mountain pastures. She uses seven dogs with 300 sheep, with three or four extra dogs available.
Tradition is to raise only two pups per litter, but since there is an effort being made to distribute Karakachans and more dogs are needed, the culling program has been softened.
Daniela told us that having one ear docked is the sign of a working LPD.
She does not fence her sheep, but does use night pens. Sheep are lambed out on the mountain.
Daniela said Karakachans “are very clever.” The dogs avoid direct conflicts with bears, instead making the bears run away from the herd. The dogs are very athletic, and move very quickly.
Daniela uses iron spiked collars on her dogs, and said she’s still using them because of Bulgarian tradition. Daniela said her dogs generally don’t fight amongst each other, unless a female is in heat.
Most problems are with brown bears that come into the villages, Daniela said, while most wolf attacks involve more than one wolf.
“That’s why we prefer to have young dogs,” she said, pointing out that old dogs go out after the wolves, and the young dogs stay back and bark.
In one case, she had 20 goats, 10 of which were killed by wolves in one night. The mayor of the town demanded she chain all her dogs after the wolf killed the goats, so a bear came in and killed one of her pups as well.
Daniela said she would not be able to continue in the sheep and goat business without her guardian dogs. Some dogs patrol within the herd, others outside the herd.
If a dog is missing, that means she is missing sheep, Daniela said.
She cuts up carcasses to feed to dogs. Also feeds a mixture of wheat, corn mix in boiled water, sometimes adds milk to it – it’s called kakamucka. She also puts whey into dog food, every day.
Her dogs give birth in the wild, with the livestock. Just the dog’s owners touch the pups, while feeding the female, so they will have the ability to catch and handle the pups later on. They become bonded to the flocks and to the shepherd only.
The dogs tend to keep their distance from people, but may attack people if they come too close. If you stand quietly and do not enter the herd, you’ll be fine, she said.
While we were on the mountain amid Daniela’s herd, a man from a nearby village came near the herd while picking berries, and the dogs did not behave aggressively toward the man.
Younger dogs don’t go out away from the flock. Pups go out with herd for the first time when they are two months old. It’s good to have littermates together in a herd, so there won’t be conflicts later on as adults, she said.
At one year old, the pups will defend the herd, but will have little experience, Daniela said. After they are three years old, the dogs are perfect guardians. She said the dogs live to 15 years (a few cases of 20/21 years old).
She teaches certain commands to the dogs, including “go to herd” and “stop attack” using the same base word (“Off-sta” = sheep).
She prefers her dogs to have double back dewclaws, black mouths, and she also has a preference for big pups. She advises the use of white dogs in a dark herd so they can be seen as they move in the fog. She likes a contrast in colorations, and doesn’t like dogs that are completely white or completely black.
Dimitar & Georgi
We met up with the father and son team of Dimitar & Georgi Varshilov who are owners of a herd of sheep we found eating thistles in a field in a populated area near Plovdiv. This outfit had a lot of dogs, and 800 sheep that are managed as four herds, with three or four dogs used in each group in the summer on the highlands. While the dogs are in the lowlands during the winter months they are chained or tethered. We visited two of their four herds.
The primary predators of concern are bears and wolves. This producer has used livestock protection dogs for 40 years.
The ewes give birth to two, three or four lambs – Ill de France and East Friesian dairy sheep. This producer places colorful beaded collars on his sheep “for beauty.”
Bears pose less of a problem to this herd, according to the men. Bears don’t care about sheep because they are being fed at bear feeding stations. With big dogs, there are no bears.
“The dogs know the bears,” Dimitar said.
The Varshilovs noted that the Karakachans mark their territory, so the more dogs marking the territory, the better. Dimitar noted that wolves and dogs share some of the same behaviors, such as the dogs marking the same territory as the wolves. The wolves learn and do not challenge the dogs.
“So the wolves, when they see the dogs are serious, they go on,” he said.
Occasionally there are problems with wolves. One year, a wolf grabbed a sheep around the neck, but did not kill it, while there was only one young dog with that herd providing protection. The family has had no losses on high pastures in the last six years, even though wolves are present.
The Varshilovs have not had dogs killed or injured by wolves. They breed their own dogs, keeping five or six pups if it’s a really good litter. The dogs bond with the sheep, lick the lambs, and show affection. The dogs will lick and clean injuries on a sheep as well. Pups move with the herds from a very young age, and pups that are born on the mountain with the herd learn from older dogs. The herders seem to believe that pups born out with the sheep, and moving with the movement of the herd, lack health issues like hip dysplaysia.
They reported the maximum size of their male dogs is 45 kilos (99 pounds), for a 1 ½ year-old male.
The herd is sometimes night penned, and in bad weather the herd is kept inside, but in good weather, the herd stays out with the dogs.
Some dogs stay inside the flock, while others patrol outside, and the dogs load into trucks alongside their sheep.
When asked if they have a problem with shyness in their dogs, the Varshilovs said the dogs have some contact with the herders because they must have some control.
“They prefer a more soft dog, because they are easier to handle,” their interpreter explained.
The dogs respond to tourists approaching too closely by barking. They go out 15-20 meters from the flock and bark. Motorcycle or bicyclists have been chased, and one of their dogs bit the tire of a motorcycle.
This family has a color preference, preferring black and white dogs, saying that they are more visible in the herd.
Their dogs fight occasionally, but it’s over females in heat.
The family has used spiked collars in the past.
Although this producer does not dock his dog’s ears because the men personally do not like it, they cautioned that if the dogs are fighting often (either with each other or with wolves) the ears are the weak spot. They do not castrate dogs either – they did this to one dog once, because the dog wasn’t staying with the herd.
The dogs are fed every day, usually bones and the trachea of cattle from a slaughter house/rendering plant. Sometimes they feed meat with porridge, and out-of-date sausage or kovbasa.
Their dogs are trained to the “return to sheep” command. They perform regular vaccination of pups, but now there is a new program where producers must go to the vet to get prescriptions to get vaccines, a program disliked by producers.
They do have problems with young dogs getting killed on roads.
Miroslav
Miroslav Marinov is of Zmeyovo village, near Stara Zagora, Bulgaria. He owns the Volcan Karakachan kennel, and raises 450 head of Zakar sheep, the local sheep breed of southeastern Bulgaria. His herd grazes in winter near Zmeyevo in Sredna Gora Mountain, and in summer, in Central Balkan National Park.
A veterinarian by trade, he has recently achieved some musical success. As his wealth increased, he purchased a farm and livestock 15 years ago, so that he could have these dogs. First he bred goats on his farm, but switched to sheep.
Because of past problems with human thievery, Miroslav selects for human aggressive dogs. His training involves chaining the dogs out, and having a stranger with a stick attack the dogs as if they were to be beaten. The dogs lunge forward, trying to attack the stranger with the stick.
Five or six “softer” dogs are allowed out with the herd during the day, but the “harder” dogs are unleashed at night.
His dogs sometimes fight, but in principle have a strong pack hierarchy. Sometimes the dogs fight for dominance, or for food, and females. The dogs will keep all intruders out of the herd, but must show submission to the flock.
His dogs will challenge and fight dogs from other flocks, but in subsequent meetings, will not let the dogs within 100 meters of his herd. He said the bigger dogs get in the fights, not the smaller ones. The dogs launch very fast attacks, which he said is important when facing bears.
He does have problems with tourists and hikers.
“It is a problem because hikers are not trained how to deal with dogs,” he said.
One hiker was bitten on the butt by one of his dogs, so he presented the hiker with the gift of a puppy to make it up to him. The dogs also chase motorcyclists.
Miroslav said wolves prefer donkey meat to sheep. Wolves and jackals are his major predators. In the last 10 years, he has had only one goat killed in the lowlands by three wolves. The goats were guarded by only one dog at the time.
Miroslav reports that his dogs have deterred six bear attacks that he knows.
One herd guarded by 8 dogs had 25 sheep killed by wolves.
One herd had 14 sheep killed by wolves. The herder used lights and a pistol to make noise to keep the wolves away. He eventually gave up this pasture and got better guardian dogs.
One night he left two dogs with the herd, and 8 wolves attacked. Some of the wolves lured the dogs from the herd, while others moved in to attack. The flock separated into three groups, and some were attacked on necks, others on the shoulders. This mountain pasture is within the Central Balkans National Park.
Castrated dogs have only about 70 percent of their working ability, he said, adding that it was better to have 70 percent of a dog than zero.
“It’s rare to castrate a dog,” he said, adding that castration causes the problem of more fighting between the sexes (males and females fighting each other).
“It is better to have fertile dogs, to protection your lineage,” he said.
He does not docked tails, stating that curled tails are very visible in the herd. He prefers lighter-colored dogs, and prefers lots of white so he can see the dogs at night. He said his sheep, which have encountered wolves, do not like dark-colored dogs. He uses a German Shepherd as a herding dog.
This producer said the dogs are “absolutely trustworthy” around his family members. He advised the less human contact, the better, although puppies are encouraged to learn its flock and its owner.
Miroslav said the dogs have to have human contact in order for the herder to be able to manage the dogs. Dogs must know the livestock first, then the owner.
One of Miroslav’s dogs that we saw was a seven-year old female that had her leg broken in a fight with a bear three months prior.
Most of his pups are born out, and they try to time whelping so pups are born in the winter months so the pups can be with the lambs.
Sheep spend nights inside buildings, with their guardian dogs, while the shepherd sleeps in the village. The dogs keep new shepherds from entering the buildings as well.
When it comes to chasing predators, Miroslav said some dogs chase long distances (as far as one kilometer), while others are short-distanced. In principle, the older dogs with more experience stay closer to the flock, and the young dogs chase farther. He said the more dogs guarding the herd, the farther the chase will go, and less dogs stay closer.
The dogs must be brave enough to attack the bear, and not just bay it like a hunting dog.
The size of the dog isn’t as important, Miroslav said, since the group works together as a pack when danger approaches. He selects dog behaviors for his herds – some will stay on front, others in back, outside, inside herd. He said this is important because when sheep are trailing, wolves will try to kill from behind. He selects dogs that work as a team.
He sometimes purchases dogs, then chains them so that the dogs can see each other. He then brings the dog to the herd and others on a leash. He said it’s similar to introducing a new sheep to the herd.
Miroslav said the best guardian dog is a female. We saw a 14-year old male dog on his farm, again indicating the rather long lives of this breed.
His dogs wear generic collars (without spikes) and spavachkas. He selects for double back dewclaws.
His dogs do fight, and he had one dog killed by other dogs.
His farm is a former state farm, as was evident by the stone water troughs that were 50 or 60 years old.
He feeds the dogs a grain porridge while the dogs are on mountain pastures, and in the lowlands, he often feeds kibble because it is lighter and easier. He often feeds cuttings from the butcher as well.
He keeps more dogs than necessary to his operation to avoid a crisis situation if dogs are killed or die.
“It is better to feed dogs than wolves,” he said.
He thinks six dogs on five wolves would do okay. He finds bear fur in the mornings when the dogs have encountered marauding bears.
His kennel produces four to six litters of pups a year, breeding in the October through January season. His females come in heat once or twice a year. He does not cull any pups because he cannot select the best dogs at birth.
His predator problems are not seasonal. In every case, when he removes dogs, there has been a problem. The peak of wolf attacks on his herds occurs in mid-August and in the autumn when wolf pups are learning to hunt.
In the national park where he grazes his herds, tourists are deemed more important than grazing, and there are conflicts.
Sider
Sider’s Karakachan sheep herd grazes in Pirin National Park in the Pirin Mountains, and in winter, around Vlahi village. Sider’s flock of native sheep totals 448 head, and he pens the herd at night in a pen made of bushes. They also have an enclosure on the mountain, but if the pen is muddy, the sheep are left out at night. The herd lambs outside in January and February, with the dogs cleaning up the afterbirth. If a sheep dies out on the mountain, the wolves will clean up the carrion. The dogs will eat the dead sheep if it is cut up for them.
Sider reported the dogs have no major health issues, although one female died of cancer, which he said is more common in breeding stations than on working farms in the countryside.
Pups are raised with the flock. Sider said that having more male LPDs is better than having more females because there will be less fighting. Sider said bonded pairs stay together, and older pups help care for younger pups.
Most Karakachans die from being poisoned or shot, but otherwise can have rather long lives. He’s had two dogs live 15 years, and one lived to be 18 or 19, but the average is six or seven years for these working dogs. He has had 13 working Karakachans dogs killed by hunters in 10 years. The situation is dire enough that his herders carry an antidote to poison in their backpacks so they are prepared to provide care to poisoned LPDs.
Puppies can be effective guardians, even as young as four- to six-months old, Sider said.
“They can be effective too, because they can see, they can smell, they can give signals to the other dogs,” he said. But a dog aged 1 ½ years “ is very effective.”
“I think the best dog is a three- to five-year old dog,” Sider said, calling them prime guardians at that point.
When asked how far the dogs will pursue when encountering wolves, Sider said it varies, but sometimes the dogs will run 20 minutes non-stop through the forest, going far if there are other dogs remaining with the herd.
Sider also noted that Karakachans are rarely found in the middle of their herd, instead preferring to surround the herd.
Sider does not castrate any of his dogs, saying that castrated dogs become lazy.
“Old shepherds really like castrated dogs because they are not problematic,” Sider said, because the males do not fight and pursue females.
He brings the females to the farm for breeding because the males will fight over the females on the mountain.
Sider maintains there are important characteristics of male and female Karakachans, including that the females bond more closely, but are not as good at attacks. He maintains that the presence of females improves the male’s performance. He said two females with four males is a good combination.
Sider does not cull pups from litters. Although he doesn’t cull for color, he likes black dogs with white neck collars, and he likes a third color as well.
“In the forest, the spotted dog is more visible, during the day or during the night,” he said. Most of the pups are born at the farm, but if born out, he follows the female to find the pups. At 20 to 40 days of age, they start feeding them food.
He tries to limit the amount of contact the pups have with humans, but this does not apply to the shepherds. There are many people around – volunteers, people coming to visit and see the large carnivore center, tourists on the mountain. Limiting the pup’s contact with others is aimed at keeping them from following visitors and bonding with strangers. Sider touches them and bonds with them instead. Sider doesn’t want every visitor touching the pups. When the pups do something bad, he kicks them. He doesn’t want the pups to go with the nice stranger instead of him. It’s part of training for the pups.
Sider believes he could train his dogs to be human aggressive, but that isn’t what he wants because of the human encounters the dogs will have in the forest. He noted the genetic lineages of his dogs do not include a base of human aggression.
Sider noted that when it comes to Karakachans, size really doesn’t matter because the dogs are very easy moving and quick in their actions.
Sider also noted that the dogs can look at people and judge a person’s intentions. His dogs will react differently to new volunteers than to strangers coming from the village.
Sider recommends about five dogs per 200 goats, and trains his dogs to a variety of commands. He uses the “go to sheep” command, and he trains his dogs to a signal for when to look aggressive, and what direction to run.
The sheep and goats don’t like each other much, Sider said, so they are kept in separate flocks with their own dogs.
The dogs will chase game, so need to be kept busy.
Sider said it is tradition to dock one ear, but it’s not a tradition he’s followed. Traditional docking of one ear is done to assist in hearing, he said.
He feeds porridge every day, and feeds twice a day on the mountain because of the energy required by the dogs. He also cuts up carcasses to feeds to the dogs.
Sider recommended that if the dogs are working well together, use the anti-wolf collars as great protection for the dogs. But if there is conflict among the group of dogs, the collars will cause additional problems for the producer. Once a new dog finds its place in the pack (after the hierarchy fighting is over) he places iron collars on the dogs.
He said to put the collars on the three bravest dogs in the flock because these will be the dogs to immediately challenge the wolves. This strategy provides a better possibility for the dogs to survive the initial attack while the other dogs are coming to join in.
Sider wasn’t currently using spiked collars, but has used them in the past, and will again in the future. Dogs have interpack strife and iron collars can result in broken teeth. He reported the collars do not cause problems in heavy brush, or getting snagged.
“They can use this,” and “the more experience they have, they know how to use them.”
“Our best dog would use his, he was a professional fighter. He liked to fight but was very intelligent.”
He had some broken teeth, Sider said, “he was so good.”
“He was just like human, you could speak with him,” Sider said in admiration of his dog.
Most of the dogs do not fight to the death, although a few will. Sider had a pack of five dogs he could walk with, free, and not cause problems. He also had this one dog that loved to fight, “he was fighting to kill them, not to fight” and killed numerous dogs. This was a dog he had purchased as an adult, not one he had raised.
Sider admitted that his dogs have bitten people. His dogs will attack if people try to cross through the flock. There are many tourists around, as many as 100 people at once. The people must be taught to go around the herds, he emphasized, because the dogs must be allowed to do their jobs.
The predator encountered most is by Sider’s herds are wolves – most encounters are two or three wolves, often from 3-5 wolves in a pack in the area.
“There were years when I lost a lot of goats because of the goatkeeper,” he said, because the goats were scattering, causing a few cases of predation.
“Once the wolves killed a young goat in front of me. I saw the wolf for a second, but it was too late,” Sider said. “That same year, our dogs managed to kill a wolf. Some year, maybe four years ago, they killed another wolf, mainly when they were alone.”
He was losing 15 or more sheep a year to wolves in the past. One year, he had three sheep killed by wolves, while the dogs were distracted by a female in heat. In one year, seven young horses and three cows were killed by wolves in 10 days. The male wolf was eventually killed. The horses and cows were free-ranging, without guardians.
“With the sheep, almost nothing in these 10 years,” Sider said, “because the sheep stay always together. And I have always better dogs with the sheep.”
The reason his losses are low are because the sheep flock well when paired with good guardian dogs, Sider said. The dogs help to keep the sheep together.
He did give a Karakachan to a cow herder, and the dogs bonded to the cattle. There are some cases of people using these dogs with cattle, but since cattle are used mostly in the lowlands, not so much. Now that there is a subsidy for grazing in the highlands, and for using livestock protection dogs, he expects more people to try it.
Dogs will sometimes bite the sheep in dispute over food, Sider said. Sometimes there is injury, but it’s not a big problem. The sheep learn not to bother the dog food.
When a sheep or goat dies, Sider cuts up the carcasses to feed to his dogs, adding that his dogs will guard a dead sheep and await the herder.
His dogs have been injured by large predators, including a female dog that was slapped across the face and scalped by a bear.
He does not believe wolves are attracted to his dogs in any manner, including female dogs in heat.
Sider said from his experience, wolf packs will select the least-protected herd or flock to attack. So if his herds are guarded by Karakachan LPDs, and his neighbor’s herd is not, it will be the neighbor who suffers.
In Bulgaria, back dewclaws are know as “wolf fingers” because of the gripping power of the dew claws. (Even though wolves don’t have back dewclaws.) In Turkey, they are called the “wolf killers.”
Sider’s program breeds and sells Karakachans and he’s happy to ship to the United States, as he’s done in the past.
Karakachans are effective in guarding herds from both wolves and bears, but have varied levels of human aggression. We recommend further research on the potential use of this breed in large-carnivore country of the United States, but wouldn’t hesitate to recommend producers in grizzly bear range give this breed a try. LPDs should be selected from working lineages without human aggression.
Turkey:
We flew into Izmir, on the Mediterranean coast, meeting our guide for the week, Guvener Isik[5] (“Isik”), and spending the night in a private home along the shoreline. The next morning, we rented a car for the week and headed for our first stop, Denizli.
Turkey is huge landmass, with many people involved in agriculture. There are few fences, so livestock must be herded. There is a substantial wild boar population, which many livestock producers view as a much bigger threat to their livelihoods than wolves. We saw and heard bells on sheep, goats, and dogs. We saw beautiful collars placed on sheep “for beauty.”
The Turkish wolf population is estimated to be about 5,000 to 7,000, and wolves are considered an unprotected pest species. There are no established quotas for wolf hunting, or set hunting season, so wolves can be taken much as we do coyotes.
Isik told us that villagers believe that the behavior of wolves has changed over the years, and now the wolves don’t howl, or don’t form big packs very often. Most packs are usually only two to four animals.
Isik told us that wolves do breed LPDs on occasion, and we heard local stories about it. One village in eastern Turkey is known for its wolf crosses, although we did not travel there because it wasn’t part of our area of inquiry. We also heard a story of a shepherd who captured a wolf pup and raised it with his herd at least until it was four years old. We heard this story repeated by several different people. Other wolves in Turkey are known to prey on dogs as a food source.
We saw tethered LPDs and learned that they are set free at night, to guard a cattle dairy from a nearby gypsy encampment. We found that generally, dogs that are tethered during the day are more dangerous to humans.
Dog fighting/wrestling is still popular in parts of Turkey, and those who raise big LPDs often meet up for competition between their dogs and those from other villages.
The Kangal is now the national dog of Turkey, leading to show-dog syndrome, where some of the top dogs are called Kangals but have little guardian instinct, and breeders are expected to be paid high dollar for pups. Soon after we arrived in the country, we realized there are several different ideas about what constitutes a “Kangal,” so we stopped using that breed name. We learned that there is a wide variety of large shepherd dogs in Turkey, and some are given regional names. We call them, collectively, Turkish shepherd dogs.
We met Turkish LPDs that are proven fighting dogs, as well as excellent guardians. It can be very difficult to legally export the dogs, but we don’t believe it to be impossible.
LPDs in Turkey must guard against jackals, wolves, leopards and wild boars. We did not learn of any human aggression or livestock aggression in street dogs, village dogs, etc., although they are found throughout the country. The Turkish government does not kill stray dogs, but catches and neuters strays before turning them back out for the citizens to take care of.
Throughout Turkey, we saw large shepherd dogs everywhere. Some were fighting dogs, good herd guardians, village dogs, and street dogs. They are large and look like LPDs, even if they aren’t in the business of guarding livestock. They occupy the canid niche, serving as a deterrent to wolves.
One evening, we entered a mountain camp where the LPDs live with the cattle on the mountain full time. We also saw villages where cattle are penned at night, and let out to graze the highlands during the day, their LPDs constantly at their side.
Kayis
In the village of Seyit, outside of Denizli, in southwestern Turkey, we met up with Ibrahim Kayış at his home, and then traveled with him out to his fields to meet his sheep herd that was being tended to by his brother Musa and father Hasan. Their 400-head herd produces both meat and milk, and they’ve raised livestock protection dogs all their lives.
They lamb out in the fields, and the dogs clean up the afterbirth. They have lots of wolves in the area, in addition to jackals, but no bears in this region of the country.
When they don’t need the pups, they cull. The presence of back dewclaws on the dogs varies.
They crop ears when the pups are a few days old. Ibrahim doesn’t like the looks of hanging ears, so that’s why he crops. His father, Hasan said: “It looks nice, but the main reason apart from that, different dogs of different herds attack each other, and they damage each other, plus the wolf does the same thing, grabs the ear and damages the ear. With the wolf, he has no chance, with those ears.”
They don’t crop the tail because they believe the tail adds balance to the dog, and allows them to cover their faces when it’s cold.
The dogs are fed yal – a grain-based porridge, in addition to wild boar, which is cut up and fed to them, as are dead sheep. Ibrahim said, “Just because you feed him a dead sheep doesn’t mean that he’ll eat a live sheep.”
They had 17 wolves in one pack recently, and the pack was seen crossing the road. They recently shot two jackals in the village, although they don’t regularly kill jackals since jackals will eat wild boar piglets. Big wolf packs used to be more common (a generation ago), but then declined, now are making somewhat of a comeback in this region of Turkey, according to Ibrahim.
They recently found a wolf dead in the water, and showed us a photo of it. They tried to save the wolf, but realized it was dead.
“If you have good dogs, the dogs will take care of the wolves,” Ibrahim said. “The poor thing died,” he said. “If you trust your dogs, they can handle them.” We were told that herders wouldn’t shoot a wolf because that would be an admission their LPDs weren’t good enough.
The Kayis’s haven’t had any recent losses to wolves, and they keep three or four dogs with 400 sheep. They said this combination will take care of the wolves, but there will be some lambs lost. The sheep are penned at night.
As for spiked collars, Ibrahim said they are necessary to give the dogs a chance against wolves. He noted that different dogs from different flocks will attack each other, and wolves do the same thing. Hasan said that if the dog is wearing a collar, the wolf cannot grab the dog around the throat or the back of the neck. The dog knows how to hit it – the wolf, he said. “As they get older, they know the use of it {the collar}, and they start actively using it.”
“In Konya, they say the same thing,” Isik said, that experienced dogs actively use their collars in battle. The dogs wear the collars all the time, Hasan said, and the dogs sometimes fight each other and inflict damage on each other with the collars.
Ibrahim suggested the reason so many American livestock protection dogs are getting killed by wolves is that their genetics may be getting diluted, or getting softer genes passed, or by crossed with other lineages, with not enough desire.
Talking about his dogs, Hasan: “The males are very dominant –the way they howl tells the coming dogs to stay away, by the tone of their voice, not their approach. But some dogs, they want to challenge it, so they come in anyway.” Their dogs do not allow other dogs to breed their females.
Hasan: “The wolf also knows the mighty dog. The wolf can feel that these dogs are dangerous, so it does not approach. It’s the same, with the dog and the wolf – the voice tells the wolf its strength.”
They feed the dogs well so that they are able to challenge wolves. The best thing to feed the dogs is yal, the men said. Before dog wrestling events, yal is the only thing that is fed. These are not the carnivores, we were told. Something is different in their metabolism, they just utilize that bread. “They are like bearish animals,” Isik said, adding that overfeeding can result in hip and bone problems.
Yes, these dogs can be aggressive to humans, and several people have climbed trees to get away from their dogs, the men said. They alleged that it depends on the people – that the dogs will chase and attack gypsies.
People in Turkey will try to steal sheep, we were told, so the dogs need to be aggressive to humans at times. The dogs independently judge the human and its activities, and respond in the manner it feels appropriate. In Turkey, if a dog bites a person, there is no real recourse for the human.
The day before our visit, two flocks crossed paths, and the neighboring sheep herder stopped and petted one of the Kayis’s dogs. All was well with that, but then one of the neighbor’s sheep joined the Kayis’s flock, and when the neighboring herder attempted to grab his sheep back from the Kayis’s herd, he was grabbed on the buttock by the very dog he had just petted. The herder did not say anything bad about the situation, realizing he should have known that’s what would happen.
“The people need to be educated, instead of changing the dog, people need to change.” Isik said. “These dogs have a job to do and they do it.”
“The man should be wiser,” Isik said. “If your dog has no aggression, how is it going to guard your sheep?” Isik asked.
They test their dogs all the time, Ibrahim said, and he sells dogs with a guarantee that the buyer won’t have livestock losses.
“The wolves in this area are the size of the dogs, and sometimes larger,” Isik interpreted for Ibrahim.
The pups are handled, but not petted by adults. The children play with them, but not adults. Too much touching makes the dogs too soft.
“It makes them soft.” Muslims also view the dogs as unclean, so that’s an added reason.
The dogs do work together. When danger approaches, one stays in the herd, while the others surround the flock. The dogs are affectionate with the sheep, and do not kill the family’s chickens, which range freely around the dogs. A magpie that was bothering the chickens didn’t have the same fate though, being shot by one of the men. The magpies look the same as those in Wyoming, but have a different call.
We watched a cell phone video of two of the Kayis’s dogs killing a 450-pound wild boar.
We were told a typical wolf encounter goes like this: the pack sends one wolf in first, to check around the dogs, and if the dogs aren’t too aggressive, the wolves attack. Some of the encounters with wolves take place over long distances and times. Sometimes the dogs will go for two or three miles in chase. The chasers are the wolf killers – sometimes not returning for three days.
None of their dogs have been killed by wolves in the last 45 years, we were told. We also saw photos of a wolf that was killed by one of their dogs.
One of their dogs lived to be 13 years old, but the average is seven years. Apparently the dogs live longer lives in cold climates, shorter lives in hotter climates.
The Kayis dogs are huge – not less than 80cm at the shoulder, and one was 86 cm at shoulder. These are long-distance dogs, traveling six months of the year, so their paws can get worn and bleed.
Isparta goat herder
We met a goat herder along the roadside near Isparta (southwestern Turkey) and stopped to talk. His dogs were native of the Anatolian region. Four of this dogs had fought with two wolves and ran the wolves off after the wolves had killed four goats.
He feeds his dogs yal and he reported that they have no human aggression.
Zaizihni
In southeastern Anatolia, we met a cattleman in a village, Zaizihni Kovulmaz. The village grazes over 100 cattle and one or two dogs with the herd, in addition to a herd of 400 Mandak sheep. The herders have very close contact with their herd members throughout the day.
This region has a four-month winter where the cattle are free outside the village. All villages in this area of the country have chickens and guardian dogs on the streets, but they are losing their people and their herds. We were told they need young people, especially young women/wives, because all the younger people are moving to the cities.
They feed yal to their dogs, dock some ears, and feed dead animals to the dogs as well.
As we drove across the country, we regularly saw dead dogs, (large livestock protection dogs or shepherds) that had been killed by vehicle collisions. The number of men, dogs, and cattle are getting smaller, we were told. Zaizihni pointed out they have hot and cold running water in his village, electricity, and all their food is organic, but yet they are still losing people.
The village sheep are penned at night in rock barns with windows. The windows allow for airflow, but wolves occasionally use them to gain entrance and kill sheep.
Ali
Ali Keskin is a goat producer who lives near the village Selcen. When we visited he was trying to figure out why one of his goat’s was suffering from paralysis. Ali uses three dogs with 250 goats.
Ali has a two-and-a-half-year old unmanageable dog that had pulled down two people from tractors, and killed a wolf that came into his barn a month prior. Because the dog works against wolves, it was still alive, but Ali was willing to offer him for sale to us. The dog was obviously very dangerous.
Ali does not pet, socialize, or train his dogs in any way. The dogs are only fed yal.
Ali docks his dog’s ears because the dogs fight with wolves. He said docking minimizes the damage done to the dog, and because “A dog with ears cannot hear.”
Ali doesn’t like to use spiked collars in brushy country because the collars can get stuck, he said.
Wolves have killed some of his dogs in the past. Now that wolves are congregating in bigger packs, he has constant wolf problems.
Kultu
Father and son Hayuk and Ilhan Kultu are Anatolian Turkmen and sheep producers. They had four sheep killed by wolves, so they brought in a new bitch – a wolf-proven bitch. Their dogs have been injured in fights with wolves, without loss of sheep. They also have a dog that wrestled a bear. They recommend eight dogs with 1,000 sheep, or three or four dogs with 500 sheep.
The dogs fight between themselves, the men reported. These dogs can kill badgers, they said, and not many animals can. They feed the dogs yal and biscuits made like a ball from yal.
They said in 2010, every flock in their region had losses from wolves, with four or five sheep lost from each flock, and flock sizes varying from 500 to 1,000. They also noted that wolf behavior is changing, that the wolves are more shy and sneaky.
All their dogs wear spiked collars except for when around the village so the dogs aren’t given an unfair advantage with village dogs (so they wear spiked collars for eight months of the year). The iron collars are too cold, so felt lining is used to line collars.
The collars are used “to provide protection from wolves.”
“A smart dog knows how to use its spiked collar,” Hatuk said.
He said the size of the dog doesn’t matter, it’s all about the heart. But his bear-killer dog was a very big dog. Big dogs are not good for rocky areas, they said, adding that they select for hard, compact paws.
They dock their dog’s ears, but not tails. They recommend always cropping the ears, with no exception, because when the dogs have conflicts with wolves, they lose their ears. In summertime, they don’t crop the ears, so when those dogs grow up, they get in conflicts with wolves and get their ears ripped.
Some of their dogs have naturally cropped tails, not from their active cropping. They do not castrate or neuter. They prefer dogs with back dewclaws.
Their dogs are allowed to eat on carcasses once they open them up, and the dogs are also allowed to eat afterbirth.
A good dog manages the rest of the dogs, and the lead dogs are usually bitches, they reported. In pursuit of wolves, they don’t like their dogs to go too far.
They recommended we use felt underneath the iron collars, and suggested we continue the Turk tradition of painting the collars, and adding bells to the collars.
These people don’t like dogs called Kangals – they like the LPDs called Central Anatolians.
Memet
Memet is a cattleman in a small Yoruk village called Sarkikaraaagac. He raises small native cattle (40-42 inches at shoulder) that he says are more economical than larger breeds.
Memet told us his area was “infested” by wolves. If the cattle are related and have close bonds, they do well. If not, the wolves may snatch calves, he said. The cows will bunch into a circle to protect the calves, and normally wolves are unable to breach the circle to make a kill. He said that some of the cows will also defend their livestock protection dogs. There is a very close cooperation between the animals, Memet said.
He only feeds yal, and boils it for the dogs.
He crops one ear to promote good hearing. His herds graze within Cedar National Park, where goats are forbidden.
Village shepherds had recently met and decided not to use spiked collars because village dogs have been killed in conflicts with LPDs wearing the collars.
We heard the sound of a shotgun being fired while we were at the cattle camp on the mountain late one evening. We were told they were shooting to keep the wolves away.
In the cattleman’s village, we were told that they are losing ancient traditions, including the use of spiked collars. But because there are lots of wolves, and with more dogs, there is more fighting. The village has both cattle and sheep herds with herders.
They harvest apples and cherries in and around the village. They don’t shoot wolves because the wolves control the wild boar piglet population. They lost one calf last year, and a neighboring herd lost one just prior to their visit. Herders come down to the camp or village at night, but the dogs stay on the mountain with the cattle herds.
The Turkish countryside
We purchased two plain iron dog collars at a blacksmith shop in Ilgin, outside the city of Konya.
We spent a night at a dive in Konya, and purchased iron collars in a shop there. The streets were busy, with men selling hot, fresh bagels from trays on their heads, and others delivering trays of hot tea to various businesses and groups of people. In this extremely conservative part of the country, women are fully covered from head to toe, and we saw no mixed groups of people. The men eat lunch in the restaurants first, the women later.
There are no livestock trailers – either they are shipped on the hoof, or in trucks. We learned that human theft of livestock is always a consideration and a risk.
In Anatolia, there is a 3,000-foot elevation, and sugar beets are grown there. Everywhere we went, we saw people involved in agriculture, herding sheep, goats, and cattle on foot, harvesting apples, beets, lettuce, cabbage, peppers, and olives. We saw tractors constantly on the roads, as well as farm wagons, burros, horse-drawn carts, and tethered and free shepherd dogs, many wearing spiked collars. In the Cappadocia region, we saw the beautiful rock walls with the caves and homes built in (near Avanos) and prettily painted farm wagons in that region. I found the inland city of Kayseri to be surprising and beautiful.
We saw lots of gypsy camps throughout Turkey and Bulgaria. Isik commented, “Gypsies are like pigeons – they are everywhere.”
Our travels took us around the base of Mount Demirkazk, and wound through the highlands adjacent to the Taurus Mountains. At that time, there was no YouTube allowed in Turkey. We sat in our hotel room watching the censored version of Desperado, where they even blurred the vision of a woman smoking. We saw concrete snow fences, and pay “WC”s (waste closets). All the school children we saw were wearing uniforms.
We encountered a few Kurdish herders, and even ended up in the Kurdish conflict zone. The “Jandarma” or military police were everywhere with guns at the ready, snipers visible on the hillsides, and armored personnel carriers on the streets near Kurecik. I loved the Kurdish villages and the countryside where they are located, but we weren’t allowed to linger or loiter. There were fighter jets – including American jets – flying overhead.
We talked with one family, and had breakfast with them, who had moved to the village 130 years ago from the Caucasian Mountains.
The food we ate in people’s homes was truly delicious: garbanzo bean soup, honey combs, tomatoes, coddled cream, cheeses, fresh breads, hot, soft hard-boiled eggs, and fresh flatbreads. At restaurants, I quickly became addicted to flatbread pides, with eggplant being especially good. Jim ate lamb in many varieties.
We stopped at a roadside stand near Yarvas, and ate the most delicious apricot-wrapped-almonds.
We found large parts of the highland range available for grazing, but abandoned. We saw what are called “yellow houses of death” – large complexes designed to move herders into to get them away from their free lifestyle.
In Mus, we found bootlegged copies of banned movies – order one for $2 and wait for it to be burned for you in popular stores.
The villages from Mus to about half-way to Ezurim have manure piles (stockpiled for winter fuel) and reminded me of the Mongolian steppe. Village life in this area was similar to that of Mongolia as well.
In this country where not everyone owns a car, there are people on the streets and roads, hitchhiking and selling things. This also makes for lively streets and markets, with streets packed with people instead of cars.
Towns and parks call herders with cattle or sheep to come and graze their properties so there is no major cost for maintenance or grooming of the landscape.
Northern Anatolia is where we began to see large, long-haired livestock protection dogs. We also saw lots of mixed herds of livestock, with most combinations being sheep and goats, and goats and cattle.
All villages here have chickens and guardian dogs on the streets, but they are losing their people and their herds. We were told they need young people, young women/wives.
We saw a few hawks, eagles and storks, and huge flocks of black crows in eastern Turkey. There were huge flocks of domestic turkeys as well, some both herded and guarded by dogs.
Isik told us that sometimes nomad dogs are fed once a week. The dogs also eat sheep and goat manure, but love donkey manure also. The dogs also clean up human feces, which is another reason whey they are viewed as unclean and should not be touched.
Rock water fountains were installed in various regions of the countryside as good deeds, required by the Muslim religion. We saw nomads with thousands of head of sheep near Karaakocan, and admired the old rock night pens we saw on the range.
The road from Ankara to Istanbul reminded us of the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming. We saw few fences, but did see chain-link fences near Ankara and Istanbul, in the area before the tunnel under the mountain. When coming out the other side of the tunnel (the western side) it’s like the Pacific Northwest.
The Marriott Asia hotel in Istanbul, sitting on the Marmara seashore, has extremely high security – from the guarded gates that serve its entrance (where they check your trunk for luggage), to the metal detectors that are located in the doorway, and baggage screening in the entryway, and the guards everywhere, including in the lobby. After three weeks on the road and in somewhat primitive conditions, our one night in such luxury was wonderful. We flew out the next morning for America, and learned of a bombing that took place a few blocks away the next weekend. Our initial security check at the Istanbul airport involved both airport security and police, as they inspected our spiked, anti-wolf collars. They quickly saw what they were, and sent us through, leaving the sharp objects in our checked luggage. Cat was searched, but women in burkas were not, and neither was Jim.
Portugal (Transmontano Mastiffs)
When we departed the United States, we initially traveled to Portugal, hoping to learn about the Transmontano Mastiffs we’d read about in that country. It took considerable planning for us to get from Porto, Portugal to a small home/hotel inside Montesinho Natural Park, the heart of northern Portugal’s wolf country. Our timing was bad, with herds already returned to home pastures for the fall and winter, and the expert we had hoped to meet was unavailable.
Walking the streets and roads of the natural park, we met up with our first guardian dogs, of two native breeds. There is a program in place to distribute the Transmontano mastiff to cattle and sheep grazers in the park to protect their herds from wolf depredation. The park maintains a registry of mastiff litters and makes these dogs available to producers. Since the program’s inception in 1994, the result has been a decrease in depredations on both sheep and cattle.
The Transmontano mastiff originated in a pastoral livestock system where stock are grazed in uncultivated areas away from villages, with the continuous presence of wolves leading to its functional body structure of massiveness with long head and limbs, which enable it to travel with the herds. Ninety-five percent of the northern Transmontano dog population is reportedly still used to protect extensive sheep flocks from wolf predation. An aggressive program to reduce wolf predation on sheep and cattle herds in Portugal’s Montesinho Natural Park was begun in 1994, placing Transmontano Mastiff LPD pups with herdsmen. Transmontano mastiffs are quite reserved and docile, while not being highly aggressive. Work is being done to gain international recognition for this breed.
We also encountered a few Estrela mountain livestock protection dogs. The Estrela is probably the most widespread native breed of dog in Portugal. A traditional dog used to guard sheep high in the mountains, because of its beauty, the breed is widespread and often used as pets. It was interesting to see both dog breeds, and it was notable that we heard concern about the working lineages of these dogs being overtaken by the pet/show lines.
One evening while we were in Portugal we shared a very pleasant dinner conversation with a couple from France (the husband was a native of Belgium, while the wife was from England). Two of their adult children became vegetarians, while their father is an avid carnivore.
In France, beef is produced for the local market. The eartag in each calf contains records of its date of birth and source of origin, and remains with the calf its entire life. The calf remains with its mother for nine months, before it is weaned and fattened, and sent to slaughter. When the meat is purchased from the local grocery store, the farm producer’s name is listed on the package of meat. So if a consumer likes that meat, they can continuously buy from that producer. The beef is processed locally, and they know that producer.
That couple is very proud of the cattle their local producer raises. When there are issues (resource management or political) that would impact the livestock producer, that producer has support from the local people who eat his beef, in resolving any resource dispute. This is in stark contrast to the situation in America. The consumer in America rarely knows the producer whose livelihood depends on the consumption of his product.
Final Recommendations
• An English translation of Spanish mastiff manual should be made available to livestock producers in the United States.
• Spiked collars should be manufactured and distributed to livestock producers using LPDs in areas where wolves are present. Along with distribution of the collars should be distribution of information about their proper use.
• There should be a government program developed to establish effective wolf-fighting dogs on ranches in the United States. This would probably entail contracting with Old World experts to bring pups to the U.S., and host training sessions on LPD husbandry.[6]
• APHIS specialists should be sent to Bulgaria to investigate the potential use of Karakachans in U.S.[7]
• Livestock producers should be actively encouraged to use LPDs, and the dogs should be used toward filling the canid niche in agricultural areas of rural Wyoming.[8]
• Both the general public and natural resource and land management agencies should be better educated about the value of LPDs, their use as a management tool, and proper human behavior around these animals.
• There is a gap in knowledge about LPDs killed by wolves in the Northern Rockies. Further investigation into the details of all such incidents should reveal the sex, age, number of animals involved, and further details that will shed light on the potential reason for the conflicts.
• More detail is also needed concerning LPD aggression toward humans. Details should be revealed and compiled from confirmed conflicts in the United States, including breeds involved, sex and age, and the socialization process of the dog’s rearing.
• We encourage the continued research and discovery of Old World LPD breeds and traditions in large carnivore country, and transfer of knowledge from the Old World to the agricultural community in the United States. Breeds and traditions associated in need of further examination include (but not limited to) the Central Asian Ovcharka and the Shar Planinetz or Sarplaninac of Macedonia.
Trip & financial summary:
We traveled a full three weeks in foreign countries in October 2010, and as we pledged, visited three different regions with large carnivore populations and active livestock grazing. We arrived in Europe on the very day the U.S. State Department issued a warning to American travelers about increased terrorism activity in Europe, so we were careful in all our travels to stay away from concentrations of people (except in airports where it couldn’t be avoided). That was easy enough to do, since we were there for livestock operations, not tourism. The last day of our international travel was spent in Istanbul, Turkey, and a week later, a suicide-bomber killed himself and about a dozen other people (mostly police) at a popular historic square in that city. We even entered the Kurdish conflict zone in Turkey one tense afternoon. We managed to get stuck in a farmer’s field in Spain, and were subject to regular and random police stops in Turkey.
We began the journey in Portugal, but unfortunately we were unable to make contact with enough experts/shepherds to be able to fairly assess the effectiveness of their native livestock protection dogs (although we did encounter a few of the dogs). Striking out in Portugal, our contacts in Spain urged us to hurry there, and we did so, where our guides were two freelance wolf biologists who work with ranchers on a daily basis. One of our guides, Yolanda Cortes, was in charge of placing livestock protection dogs with livestock producers in wolf country. These were very knowledgeable people we managed to hire away from their regular duties to set up interviews with producers for us, drive us to those interviews, and then serve as our interpreters. We had four days of very packed schedules, arriving back to our hotel at nearly 11 p.m. every night. We learned a great deal about Spanish mastiff dogs in wolf country.
Next we traveled to Bulgaria, where Cat became ill for a few days. Once she recovered, we traveled with our guide, Atila, one of a family of three who run sheep and work on large carnivore recovery in the Balkans. Another family member is a wolf biologist, and the third family member is the shepherd who tends to the sheep. They also operate a large carnivore education center, complete with captive wolves and bear, and showcase the use of Karakachan livestock protection dogs in order for all species to co-exist in the region. The bear population is dense in this region, and the dogs do an amazing job keeping the bears out of the herd. We again had a grueling schedule of back-to-back interviews and travel to see different livestock operations.
Our last week of travel was spent in Turkey, with Isik Guvernor, an expert on the shepherd dogs of Turkey who also runs a goat creamery. We saw a wide variety of large protection dogs throughout our travels in Turkey, and were struck at how the dogs are everywhere – in villages, along roads, with livestock – in essence filling the large canine niche. Where the dogs are, the wolves cannot be.
Here’s how our draft budget numbers for travel compared to the actual trip:
Budget Actual
Flights: $8,640 $5,747.60
Per diem: $8,765 $9,134.00
Hired: $3,500 $4,573.12
Total: $20,905 $19,454.72
Now an explanation:
Flights: Our travel agent is a genius, so that’s why flights were less.
Per diem: is based on the per diem schedule below, and the rates were based on 1 ½ people per day, since Jim and Cat shared motel rooms. As it ended up, we also paid for all food and accommodations for our guides, as well as purchased the fuel for rental cars. A few times we were able to stay with families, and our paid accommodations ranged from some nasty dives, to comfortable, and even one five-star hotel on our last night of the trip in Istanbul (found a deal on the Internet, so had to do it!).
Per diem Rates (using US gov rates):
SLC x 2 days ($228 total) $456
Portugal x 2 days (288) $576
Spain x 4 days (625) $2,500
Bulgaria x 6 days ($371) $2,226
Turkey x 8 days ($422) $3,376
TOTAL: $9,134
Hired: While we were pretty close on estimating what it would cost to hire guides, we underestimated the cost of car rental and other transportation costs (taxis, public transport systems) that we had to use because we were in such remote regions.
Portugal:
Taxis/public bus to Spain $150
Total Portugal: $150
Spain:
Taxi/airport $50.
Guide $350
Total Spain: $400.
Bulgaria:
Taxi/airport x 2 $70
Guide $420
Rental car $727.21
Total Bulgaria: $1,217.21
Turkey:
Taxi/airport $40.00
Guide $1,650
Rental car $1,115.91
Total Turkey: $2,805.91
Total hired services: $4,573.12
Additional expenditures:
Misc expenditures not budgeted:
The Urbigkits spent an additional $620.42 for items not in the original travel budget, including:
$215 to purchase six spiked anti-wolf collars in Turkey;
$40 for Visa permits to enter Turkey, the only country with such a requirement;
$60 for a toll road permit to enter Istanbul;
$92.42 on travel guide books & maps;
$213 on gifts for the people interviewed on our travels (multi-tools & books for shepherds, toy cars for children, and Wyoming pins for women).
In addition, although we had proposed (and budgeted) to attend the Wyoming Wool Growers Association/Wyoming Stock Growers Association joint convention on December 14, 2010, the two organizations did not meet jointly. Cat did a presentation to the WSGA convention in Casper as planned, but was unable to present at the WWGA meeting, which was held jointly with the Idaho wool growers. Instead, Bryce Reece managed to get Cat an invitation to speak at the American Sheep Industry convention in Nevada, so she spent an additional $473 at attend that session (Hotel $224, registration $100, plane tickets $149).
The Urbigkits and Wyoming Wool Growers Association in-kind contributions to this project were as budgeted ($14,000 and $2,500, respectively).
[pic]
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[1] Urbigkit, C, and J. Urbigkit, 2010. “A Review: The Use of Livestock Protection Dogs in Association with Large Carnivores in the Rocky Mountains.” Sheep and Goat Research Journal: Vol. 25.
[2] Contact information:
Juan Carlos Blanco/Yolanda Cortés
C/Manuela Malaysian 24
28004 Madrid, Spain
email: yCortés1@, jc.blanco2503@
Juan Carlos cell: (+34) 659-157-142
Yolanda cell: (+34) 609-166-073
[3] Julie Young, Supervisory Research Wildlife Biologist, USDA Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center, Logan UT. Juliie.k.young@aphis.. Telephone (435) 797-1348.
[4] Atila Sedefchev: Telephone: +359 (0) 886 839 137, Email: karakitan@.
[5] Guvener Isik, isik34@
[6] Yolanda Cortés of Spain is immensely qualified and experienced for such an undertaking.
[7] Michael Marlow, USDA Wildlife Services Resource Management Specialist based in Fort Collins, Colorado would be a logical contact for this. His contact information is Michael.c.marlow@aphis. and telephone is (970) 494-7456.
[8] Interested producers wanting more information/to try Old World breeds more suited to challenging wolves:
Mickey Thoman, 38622 Wyoming 372, Kemmerer WY 83101
Jody Bagley, 1146 Highway 238, Auburn WY 83111
Dave N[pic]eves, Box 108, Emblem WY 82422
John Espy, 906 13th Rawlins, WY 82301
Pete Arambel, Box 636, Rock Springs WY 82902
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